Agent Running in the Field

The erosion of institutional trust manifests in Agent Running in the Field through multiple characters’ gradual disillusionment with the organizations they once trusted implicitly. This erosion occurs at various levels—from intelligence services to democratic governments—and drives several key character decisions throughout the narrative, including Florence’s decision to leave the Service and Nat’s decision to help her flee the country.

Le Carré centers the British Secret Intelligence Service in his exploration of the breakdown of trust in longstanding institutions of political power. When Florence discovers that her operation targeting Russian oligarch Orson has been blocked not for legitimate security concerns but because of Dom’s wife’s financial interests in the target property, she resigns from the Service immediately. This decision, while initially seen as incomprehensible to Nat before he knows the full story, demonstrates how personal corruption can destroy deep faith in supposedly impartial institutions.

An even more dramatic loss of institutional trust occurs in Ed’s trajectory. As a clerical officer with top-secret clearance, Ed has access to classified information about Operation Jericho, a joint British-American plan to undermine European Union trade agreements. Upon discovering this conspiracy between two democratic nations he once trusted, Ed decides to leak classified information to what he believes are German authorities.